Food, Drink and Tomfoolery

So, my son was born a week ago, and after a long stay in the hospital and not having anything really tasty for dinner in some time, I decided to whip up something nice for a change.

Smoked Pheasant

This one’s fairly easy. I just defrosted a pheasant, removed the gizzards, applied sea salt, fresh-cracked pepper and a few tablespoons of olive oil to the outside of the bird and stuffed it with fresh sage leaves. Then I threw it on the upper rack of my barbecue grill and smoked it at a medium temperature with some hickory chips.

Cooking time: approx 1 hour 15 min

Cauliflower and Beets Mornay

First, roast the beets in an oven about 350F for about 45 min. I used golden beets in this instance. Steam the cauliflower until just tender. The sauce is a Mornay sauce, but with some adaptations. Okay, a little explanation is in order. What’s a Mornay sauce, you may ask? Simple. It’s a Béchamel sauce with grated cheese. But wait! What’s a Béchamel sauce? It’s not too hard. Create a roux by combining equal parts wheat flour and fat (typically, clarified butter) in a skillet and whisk them together over medium-low heat. For Béchamel, we want a white roux, which means you don’t want to allow the roux to brown, just give it a couple minutes to heat thoroughly and then start whisking milk in gradually until it’s the desired consistency– you want it to be a thin soup-like consistency before adding the cheese. Traditionally, equal parts Parmesian and Gruyère are used. Okay, so on to my changes: substitute duck fat for the butter and Romano and aged Manchego for the Parmesian and Gruyère. Add salt and pepper to taste, dash of dried basil. Once the sauce is done, peel and chop the beets, add them and the cauliflower to the sauce. Simmer for about ten minutes, serve.

I served all this with a mixed greens salad, for which I’ll share my favorite dressing recipe:

Equal parts olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Dash onion powder, dry mustard, ground ginger, garlic salt.